The present invention relates generally to a terminal assembly for an electric connector, and more particularly to a terminal having an improved solder tail portion which facilitates the attaching of the terminals of a connector to a printed circuit board, and which improves the quality control of mounting connectors to circuit boards.
As is well known, electric connectors are used to connect different electronic devices to printed circuit boards in various electrical and electronic apparatus. Such electric connectors usually include a plurality of terminals arranged at predetermined intervals and fixed to a connector housing. Each terminal may have its tail portion extend outwardly from the housing so that it may be soldered to an associated hole in a circuit board.
In the manufacture of such electric connectors, a plurality of these terminals are typically inserted into corresponding holes of the connector housing or are embedded in a connector housing mold and the connector housing formed by injection molding the housing around the terminals. The connector housing often has positioning pegs disposed at its opposite ends, thereby permitting the correct positioning of the connector relative to an associated printed circuit board.
In use, these connectors may be attached to associated circuit boards by positioning the connector on the circuit board with the aid of their connector positioning pegs and by inserting the extending solder tails of the terminals into engagement holes in the circuit board. The terminal solder tails are then soldered to the circuit board. The effectiveness of attachment of the connector to the circuit board depends on the exactness with which all terminals are positioned with respect to the positioning pegs of the housing and the engagement holes. Even if the connector housing is placed onto the circuit board in a correct position with the aid of its positioning pegs, some of the solder tails may not necessarily be aligned with the corresponding engagement holes of the circuit board and, accordingly, may catch against or interfere with the edges of the engagement holes when the connector housing is pushed against the printed circuit board.
This interference may not only lead to bending or other damage to the solder tails, but also may prevent the effective attachment of the electric connector to the circuit board. These disadvantages increase with the reduction of any alignment tolerance for mispositioning each terminal relative to the circuit board engagement hole. Accordingly, difficulty in controlling the quality of these connectors increases with the decrease in tolerance for misalignment for each terminal relative to the corresponding receiving hole in the circuit board.